The security ministry has swept into Puerto
Viejo on the Caribbean coast and promises
100 days of aggressive police work.

The community is considered laid back with
equally laid back police officers.
Marijuana and other drugs are available
freely. But the early morning murder of a
Canadian tourist a week ago threatens to
destroy the valuable tourism market.

The sweep was coordinated with the local
tourism chamber, the Cámara de Turismo y
Comercios del Caribe Sur.

The first casualty was a U.S. tourist caught
carrying a bag of marijuana, said the
Ministerio de Seguridad Pública.

Juan José Andrade, the vice minister
of Seguridad Pública, said that 40
police officers were being added to the 40
already assigned to the area. They are
expected to follow the usual procedures of
indiscriminate searches of possible drug
users, generally anyone who is a younger
male.

Andrade held a community meeting where he
outlined what would happen over the next 100
days.

He said officers would check motorcycles and
their operators continually, engage in
intelligence work, sometimes bring in
special police units and work in the sea to
stop possible ships carrying drugs.

Ministerio
de Seguridad Pública photo

Beach-goers could see an increased
police
presence in Puerto Viejo for a
time.

The ministry also will bring in two
trailers containing mobile police stations
that will work 24 hours a day.

Police officers also are expected to
visit local businesses and speak with
tourists to give them information and advice
on how to safeguard their property and to
avoid being crime victims.

The dead Canadian, Bruce McCallum, 58, was
the presumed victim of a robbery. He was out
in the early morning to photograph a
sunrise. The death of the Toronto teacher
received significant publicity in Canada.

Andrade’s ministry includes the Fuerza
Pública, the Policía Turística, the Servicio
Nacional de Guardacostas and the Servicio de
Vigilancia Aérea. He said he guaranteed
police presence from the air, from the sea
and on land.

Expats urge land
theft discussion during Solís visit

By the
A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Costa Rican president is off to the
United States this week and plans, among
other activities, to meet with Michael
Pence, the U.S. vice president.

Some expats are hoping that the topic of
land thefts are among those discussed.

The president, Luis Guillermo Solís, has not
made any public statements ever about the
way crooks take over land here. Some of the
victims are expats, but the vast majority
are Costa Ricans, many of them widows and
the vulnerable.

Solís said on his Facebook page that he was
seeking to strengthen the historic
cooperation with the United States. Since
last year, the U.S. has given Costa Rica
ample aid in security to help fight
organized crime and drug trafficking.
However, the Costa Rican president may come
hat in hand because he snubbed U.S.
President Donald Trump by not attending the
Jan. 20 inauguration in Washington.

Solís noted that the United States has
donated or promised to donate patrol boats,
aircraft, helicopters, specialized equipment
and other items to Costa Rica. The president
did not mention the three armored vehicles
that are expected to be delivered. Other
sources have estimated the donations at $30
million, nearly all to fight drugs.

Some expats said on Facebook postings that
they already have sent letters to the White
House seeking U.S. aid in their efforts to
retain their properties against organized
land thieves and snail-like courts.

Sheldon Haseltine, an expat who is involved
in a 17-year-battle to retain land near Los
Sueños on the central Pacific, says he has
been contacted by 24 U.S. expats who are
involved in land ownership situations.

Haseltine said that some have posted
messages to a White House site seeking aid.

The U.S. Embassy has never reported any
high-level contacts on this matter. A.M.
Costa Rica has called for the creation of a
special land court to review and decide
these types of cases.

Sometimes the
land cases begin with an invasion of
squatters who eventually obtain a
certain degree of possession rights due
to slow action by police and the courts.

In one recent case, the central
government moved to placate squatters
who had been ejected after many years
for a southern Costa Rican finca by
providing them with free land.

In other cases, the land thefts are
done with paperwork. A crooked notary
attests that an absent owner has sold his
land and the so-called buyer quickly
resells the property to a confederate.
Costa Rican law protects the interests of
the confederate as an innocent third
party.

Frequently, recent widows are confronted
with individuals who claim that their late
husband sold them a property just before
his death. Sometimes the widows are not
financially capable of fighting a
prolonged court case. Sometimes they just
do not know what to do.

Not just the naïve face these issues. A
former Costa Rican ambassador to the
United Nations suddenly found out one day
that a large property he owned had been
conveyed in the Registro Nacional to
another person. He was older, and
the speculation is that the land crooks
were awaiting his death to take
possession.

A.M. Costa Rica has reported how one expat
successfully fought an ownership claim by
the former wife of San José Mayor Johnny
Araya and the wife of a legislator. The
women testified that they purchased the
valuable land from a man who sells snow
cones at the Quepos beach.

The
contents
of this Web site are copyrighted by Consultantes
Río Colorado S.A. 2017 and may not be reproduced
anywhere without permission.
Abstracts and fair use are permitted.
Check
HERE for more details

A.M.
Costa Rica's professional directory is
where business people who wish to reach
the English-speaking community may invite
responses. If you are interested in being
represented here, please contact the
editor.

JAVIER ZAVALETA
RESIDENCY IN COSTA RICA
A full service immigration
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U.S. and San José officesThere are four
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Legal Resident (Rentista):
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Phone in Costa Rica: ( 506
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Web: www.residencyincostarica.com

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9071-3/19/17

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Weekend motorcycle incidents
kill three

By the
A.M. Costa Rica staff

This weekend proved fatal for three
motorcyclists, all coincidentally 35-years
old, killed following separate traffic
incidents.

Agents of the Judicial Investigating
Organization are still examining the
circumstances related to the death of a
35-year old man who lost control of his
motorcycle and collided against a wall. The
incident happened around 2 a.m. Saturday
morning in Esparza.

According to a report, the motorcyclist died
at the site and his body transferred to the
Morgue Judicial for further examination. There
was no mention as to whether intoxication
could have been a factor in the crash.

In another case, another 35-year old
motorcyclist died after colliding head-on with
another motorcycle sometime after 10:30 p.m.
on Friday. According to a report, the man was
driving in the direction of Los Chiles towards
the center of Pavón. The accident occurred in
the Los Chiles sector, officials said.

A report released by judicial agents indicated
that the man died when another motorcyclist
swerved into the other lane and collided with
the deceased. A report does not mention that
the rider was trying to pass another vehicle.
The 35-year old was pronounced dead at the
site by investigators while the other persons
involved were transferred to the local medical
center, officials said.

The Judicial Investigating Organization said
that the riders of the other motorcycle would
be tested to see if intoxication by alcohol or
drugs was a factor in this accident.
Meanwhile, the body of the deceased was
transferred to the Morgue Judicial for an
autopsy.

After 5 a.m. Saturday morning, there was
another motorcycle accident in Pocora de
Guácimo that took the life of another 35-year
old rider. A preliminary report released by
the Judicial Investigating Organization
indicated that the motorcyclist was traveling
toward Limón. A car going in the opposite
direction moved into the wrong lane and
collided head-on with the motorcyclist.

Agents said that the motorcyclist died at the
site and his body also transferred to the
Morgue Judicial for its autopsy. The driver of
the vehicle was taken to a local medical
center. Agents said that he was tested for
blood-alcohol content, but the results came
out negative.

Esparza
receives a new recreation area

Banco Nacional
Photo

Esparza got a new
recreational area, pictured in this
photo, after an investment of around
260 million colons from the Banco
Nacional, Instituto Costarricense de
Puertos del Pacífico, and the
tourism institute. The Plaza Esparza
was inaugurated Saturday in
Puntarenas and offers an opportunity
to expat, tourist and Tico alike to
relax and enjoy the space. It is
located on Avenida 5 between Calle 2
and Calle 4 in the center of
Esparza.

Environmental groups slam cable
car idea

By the
A.M. Costa Rica staff

Right now the only way to get to the summit of
Chirripó is to walk there. The peak is Costa
Rica’s highest at 3,820 meters or 12,530 feet.

The Concejo Municipal of Pérez Zeledón wants
to change that and install a teleférico, a
cable car.

Bolivia has two, Caracas one, Madrid one, and
there are dozens around the globe.

But environmentalists are protesting. The
Federación Conservacionista issued a statement
over the weekend slamming the idea.

The council in Pérez Zeledón has declared the
project to be in the local interest and has
urged the government to support the plan,
estimated to be about $20 million in private
money. The cables would run from San Gerardo
de Rivas to the summit and pass through the
Parque Nacional Chirripó.

The environmentalists call the project
illegal, unnecessary and destructive. The
statement also rejects the idea that the
cablecar system would have a positive impact
on tourism and said there have been no studies
to support the concept.

News
from the Spanish-language pressTranslated
into English

Costa Rica
Report news feeds are disabled on archived
pages.

Have you
seen these stories?From A.M.
Costa Rica(Text version is HERE!)

A strike by a meteor or a comet fragment may be why
mammoths and saber-toothed tigers are not still
roaming Costa Rica.

A new report provides tantalizing evidence that
something wiped out all the big Pleistocene animals
as well as the ancient human culture that hunted
them.

A discovery of widespread platinum at archaeological
sites across the United States by three University
of South Carolina archaeologists has provided an
important clue, the university has reported.

The cosmic impact took place around 10,000 to 11,000
B.C., and no one yet knows exactly where, although
Quebec is a possibility.

Whatever happened is suspected of causing the
Younger-Dryas, a period of colder temperatures that
reversed for 1,400 years the global warming that
ended the last Ice Age.

Scientists speculate that this worldwide chill,
named after an Arctic plant, led to the demise of
the many iconic animals, including the American
horse, as well as perhaps 35 other species.

Researchers have found at least 41 sites in Costa
Rica that yielded fossils of these beasts. Remains
of a mammoth were found in what now is Paseo Colón,
one of the main streets in the capital.

A site in Alajuela province at San Miguel de San
Ramón has been excavated since the 1930s, including
by scientists from the Universidad de Costa
Rica. In addition, there are a handful of
sites that show humans were living at the same time.

They are called the Clovis People because of the
type of spearpoint they used. The first was found at
Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s.

Later researches showed that this civilization
spread through Central and North America. Clovis
points, perfect for hunting large game, have been
found in Turrialba, Arenal and Guanacaste.

The South Carolina researchers found an abundance of
platinum in soil layers that coincided with the
Younger-Dryas, that lasted about 1,400 years, the
university said. The discovery adds weight to the
theory that was advanced by University of Oregon
researchers 10 years ago based on other evidence.

NASA graphic

A
Pleistocene megafauna bolts at a meteor impact.

“Platinum is very rare in the Earth's
crust, but it is common in asteroids and comets,”
says Christopher Moore, the study’s lead author and
an archaeologist at Carolina. He was quoted by the
university. He said the presence of platinum turned
up in the soil layers at 11 archaeological sites in
California, Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, Virginia,
North Carolina and South Carolina was an anomaly.

“The presence of elevated platinum in archaeological
sites is a confirmation of data previously reported
for the Younger-Dryas onset several years ago in a
Greenland ice-core.

The authors for that study concluded that the most
likely source of such platinum enrichment was from
the impact of an extraterrestrial object," Moore
said in a university release, adding:

“Our data show that this anomaly is present in
sediments from U.S. archaeological sites that date
to the start of the Younger-Dryas event. It is
continental in scale, possibly global, and it’s
consistent with the hypothesis that an
extraterrestrial impact took place."

The discovery of an element linked to a meteor or
comet is similar to what scientists found in a 65
million-year-old layer that some believe marks the
demise of the dinosaurs. That impact was
Mexico’s Yucatan and left a layer of iridium,
another element linked to impacts.

The research is more than academic. Scientists fear
that a large meteor or a comet could hit again and
wreck the current civilization. Meanwhile, tourists
need not fear they will run into saber-tooth tigers
in the Costa Rican rainforests.

Government touts human rights effort with
prisoners' performance

By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff

Nine performers took the stage at the 2017 Expo
Pérez Zeledón to play a concert loaded with
teary-eyed ballads, rancheras, rock songs and their
own original compositions.

There is nothing out of the ordinary with this image
except the nine men performing also happen to be
currently incarcerated for various crimes.

That is right. The music group that put on the show
Thursday are prisoners at Pérez Zeledón’s prison.

The coordinated effort between the prison
authorities, the municipality, and other government
departments enabled the group to serenade the public
at the Feria Ganadera, Industrial, Artesanal,
Comercial, Turística y de Orquídeas.

However, no one in the audience could rush the stage
or even come close to it as prison authorities set
up a police barrier of a few feet between the stage
where the prisoners were and the audience.

Events such as these are part of a wider program by
the Ministerio de Justicia y Paz to schedule monthly
activities that officials hope aid in the inmates’
reintegration into society.

This also represents a wider goal of promoting human
rights in regards to treatment of prisoners as well,
the ministry said.

While the creation of music by inmates is not
uncommon, performances outside of the cell blocks
and prison walls are.

The United Nations’
Office of the High Commissioner on

Ministerio
de Justicia photo

All
members of the music group Motivación are
prisoners.

Human
Rights establishes 11 basic principles on the
treatment of prisoners.In many countries these principles are
promptly ignored, but one of them includes “the
right to take part in cultural activities and
education aimed at the full development of the human
personality.”

Costa Rica appears to be applying at least this
principle with an alternative way to rehabilitate
its incarcerated persons.

A 2011 report on human rights practices given by the
United States Department of State commented that:
“Overcrowding, poor sanitation, difficulties
obtaining medical care, and violence among prisoners
remained serious problems in some prison
facilities."

The report also noted that limited access to health
services was a major complaint from prisoners and
staffing was insufficient to care for an increasing
prison population, it said.

Cardiovascular problems are now being reported in
association with contraction of the mosquito-borne
zika virus that has been plaguing Latin American
countries including Costa Rica.

A study at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in
Caracas, Venezuela, found that of nine adult
patients with zika and no previous history of
cardiovascular disease, all but one developed a
heart rhythm problem and two-thirds had evidence of
heart failure.

Zika virus is spread by infected mosquito bites as
well as through unprotected sex with a person
already infected. Most people infected with zika do
not realize they are sick. Vaccinations
against mosquito-borne viruses such as yellow fever
and malaria and preventive protection from mosquitos
are equally recommended. The Centers for Disease
Control said that mosquitos carrying zika usually do
not live in elevations above 6,500 feet, but
unfortunately the majority of Costa Rica is below
that elevation mark.

Zika can cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect
in babies born to women infected with the virus, and
Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition
that can lead to muscle weakness and, in severe
cases, paralysis.

“We know that other mosquito-borne diseases, such as
dengue fever and chikungunya virus, can affect the
heart, so we thought we might see the same with
Zika. But we were surprised by the severity, even in
this small number of patients,” said Karina González
Carta, cardiologist and research fellow at Mayo
Clinic as well as the study’s lead author.

The patients, six of whom were women and the average
age was 47, were seen at the Department of Tropical
Medicine in Venezuela within two weeks of displaying
symptoms associated with the virus.

According to the study, they reported symptoms of
heart problems, most commonly palpitations followed
by shortness of breath and fatigue. This was strange
considering only one patient had any prior
cardiovascular problem and that was high blood
pressure.

Tests confirmed
that all of the patients had an active
zika infection. The study then gave the
patients an initial electrocardiogram,
which monitors the electrical activity of
the heart.

The results of that test found that,
in eight of the patients, there was a
heartbeat rate or rhythm concerns. These
findings prompted a full cardiovascular
workup using an echocardiogram, Holter
monitor and a cardiac MRI study. Heart
failure was present in six cases, according
to the study.

Of these, five patients had heart
failure with low ejection fraction, when the
heart muscle doesn't pump blood as well as it
should, and one had heart failure with
preserved ejection fraction, when the heart
becomes stiff and cannot relax or fill
properly.

The patients have been followed since
July 2016, and none of their cardiac issues have
resolved, but symptoms have improved following
treatment for heart failure or atrial
fibrillation, Dr. Carta says.

“Following this research, we want patients
who are suffering from Zika symptoms also to be
aware of the cardiac symptoms because they might
not connect the two,” Dr. Carta says. “The same is
true for physicians because they might be focused
on the Zika symptoms but not thinking about
cardiac concerns.”

The study will be published online in the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology next
Saturday.

The dry season in Costa Rica usually hails a
downward trend in the spread of the virus, Costa
Rican authorities said back in December 2016.

The government launched a campaign during that time
for the cleaning and elimination of mosquito
breeding grounds particularly in establishments
catering to tourists.

The country has seen more than 1,000 zika cases that
required medical care.

The U.S. Department of State has listed zika as a
disease found in Costa Rica, but said that the
medical care in the capital is adequate with space
and availability decreasing the further one travels
away from San José.

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Comes with satellite
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Costa Rica phone:
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9178-4/7/17

What
a chalet!

We offer for rent a
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Full
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apartment. Downtown
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2-bedroom with
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bathrooms, large
kitchen and separate
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apartment is on the
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José. It is a fully
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eastern wall is
windows for commanding
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Shared free laundries
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9160-3/8/17

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The U.S. House Intelligence Committee is calling
on President Donald Trump to produce evidence by
Monday on his so-far unfounded claim that his
phones at Trump Tower in New York were wiretapped
during last year's presidential campaign.

Last week, the president wrote on Twitter that
former president Barack Obama, a Democrat, had the
phones at Trump headquarters tapped, but the
Republican Trump has offered no evidence.

Committee chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican, and
Adam Schiff, the committee's ranking Democrat,
sent a letter to Trump requesting the evidence to
support his wiretap claim.

An Obama spokesman has said Trump's charges are
simply false. Trump has not commented on the
wiretaps since the tweets.

On Sunday, Sen. John McCain of Arizona told CNN,
"The president has one of two choices: Either
retract or provide the information that the
American people deserve. Because if his
predecessor violated the law, President Obama
violated the law, we’ve got a serious issue here,
to say the least.”

Sen. McCain said he has no reason to believe the
charges are true.

Under U.S. law, a president cannot order someone's
phone to be wiretapped. He would need approval by
a federal judge and would also have to show
reasonable grounds to suspect why a citizen's
telephone calls should be monitored, such as if he
were suspected of criminal wrongdoing. The White
House said last week that Trump is not under
criminal investigation.

The wiretap charges are part of congressional
investigations into the details behind the U.S.
intelligence community's conclusion that Russia
meddled in the presidential election to help Trump
defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton, a former U.S.
secretary of State, and Trump campaign contacts
with Russian officials before and after the
November vote.

U.S. intelligence concluded Russia hacked into the
computer of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta,
with the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks then
releasing thousands of his emails in the weeks
before the election that showed embarrassing
behind-the-scenes efforts by Democratic operatives
to help Clinton win the party's presidential
nomination.

Garbage dump landslide
kills at least 46 in Ethiopia

By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services

A landslide of trash has killed at least 46 people
and left a number of others missing at a massive
garbage dump outside Ethiopia's capital, Addis
Ababa.

Officials Sunday said most of the victims were
women and children who either live in shacks at
the Koshe dump or dig through it every day,
looking for anything to sell.

Witnesses say the mountain of rubbish collapsed so
fast that it gave victims little time to get out
of the way.

Police believe about 300 people lived at the dump,
with hundreds of scavengers showing up every day.

The dump is the main depository of garbage for
Addis Ababa, a city of about 4 million people with
a burgeoning economy.

The Ethiopian government had eased up dumping
trash at Koshe in recent years, but resumed it
when farmers near the site of a new dump
protested.

Tree rings could predict
volcanic eruption, study says

By the Swiss
Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and
Landscape Research press staff

Scientists made a surprising discovery on their
mission to find better indicators for impending
volcanic eruptions: it looks like tree rings may
be able to predict eruptions, report the Swiss
Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape
Research WSL and the ETH Zurich

Nicolas Houlié, a geophysicist at ETH Zurich,
first came to know about this potential early
warning system in 2001. While looking at a
satellite image, he noticed a three kilometer-long
green line on the north-east flank of Mount Etna.
The line reflects the Normalised Difference
Vegetation Index: the higher the value, the more
vegetation is thriving in the area. But what made
the discovery really astonishing is the fact that
the volcano erupted along that exact line just one
year later.

Dendrochronologists agree that those values are
connected to tree growth, and thus reflected in
tree-ring width. With that in mind, geographer
Ruedi Seiler, and dendrologist Paolo Cherubini,
the head of Dendrochronology at the research
institute, teamed up with Nicolas Houlié four
years ago to embark upon a cross-disciplinary
research project funded by the Swiss National
Science Foundation. Their unusual idea: tree rings
give information about volcanic processes prior to
eruptions has now been published in the journal
“Scientific Reports.”

The rings formed in tree trunks during trees’
growth periods are valuable repositories of
environmental information: the ring width reflects
the tree’s growth conditions, which are a
combination of the temperature, precipitation and
nutrient conditions during a given growing season.

Under Cherubini’s direction, the researchers
conducted their initial fieldwork alongside the
lava flows that ran down Mount Etna’s west flank
in January 1974. This was the location where
Italian researchers also spotted an anomaly on
satellite images in 1973, prior to the eruption.

Seiler took over fifty tree samples in the aim of
identifying any pre-eruptive signals in the tree
rings. However, the researchers found that the
tree rings for summer 1973 were neither
exceptionally wide nor exceptionally narrow.

“If volcanic activity does influence tree rings,
then the pre-eruptive phase of the 1974 eruption
can only have begun when the trees had already
ceased their seasonal growth,” concludes Seiler.
That said, the calculated duration of the
pre-eruptive phase, which would be just a few
months in this case, is actually consistent with
the results of earlier geochemical and geophysical
studies. Restricted growth following an eruption.

Although there were no changes to the trees’
growth before the 1974 eruption, the researchers’
article in “Scientific Reports” points out that
the trees grew less in the two summers following
the eruption than in other years. This is
significant because a volcano’s past behavior can
provide information about its future activities
and thus contribute to improving measures to
protect the population.

Thanks to real-time monitoring with GPS,
seismometers and gas monitoring devices, the
eruptions of the last twenty years are well
documented. By contrast, volcanic eruptions
occurring in the 2,000 years before that cannot be
dated reliably, while the dates of even older
volcanic events can be determined relatively
accurately using the C14 method.

Research says rogue waves
are a frequent phenomena

By the
University of Miami press staff

University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine
and Atmospheric Science scientist Mark Donelan and
his Norwegian Meteorological Institute colleague
captured new information about extreme waves, as
one of the steepest ever recorded passed by the
North Sea Ekofisk platforms in the early morning
hours of Nov. 9, 2007.

Within the first hour of the day, the Andrea wave
passed by a four-point square array of ocean
sensors designed by the researchers to measure the
wavelength, direction, amplitude and frequency of
waves at the ocean surface.

Using the information from the wave set, a total
of 13,535 individual waves, collected by the
system installed on a bridge between two offshore
platforms, the researchers took the wave apart to
examine how the components came together to
produce such a steep wave.

The data from the 100-meter wide wall of water
moving at 40 miles per hour showed that Andrea may
have reached heights greater than the recorded
height of 49 feet above mean sea level. They also
found that rogue waves are not rare as previously
thought and occur roughly twice daily at any given
location in a storm. The findings showed that the
steeper the waves are, the less frequent their
occurrence, which is about every three weeks at
any location for the steepest rogues.

The Andrea crest height was 1.63 times the
significant height, which is the average height of
the highest waves. Optimal focusing of the Andrea
wave showed that the crest could have been even
higher and limited by breaking at 1.7 times the
significant height. This establishes the greatest
height rogues can reach for any given or
forecasted significant height.

“Rogue waves are known to have caused loss of life
as well as damage to ships and offshore
structures,” said Mark Donelan, professor emeritus
of ocean sciences at the Rosenstiel School. “Our
results, while representing the worst-case rogue
wave forecast, are new knowledge important for the
design and safe operations for ships and platforms
at sea.”

The study, titled “The Making of the Andrea Wave
and other Rogues,” was published in the March 8
issue of the journal “Scientific Reports.”

Asia trip poses challenges
for U.S. secretary of State

By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, making his
first trip to Japan, South Korea and China as the
top United States diplomat this week, is expected
to expand the effort to find new options for
dealing with North Korea and the nuclear and
military threat it poses to the region and to the
world.

Pyongyang's provocative gestures, such as firing
multiple missiles into the Sea of Japan this
month, have been so strident that Washington said
it is “moving farther away” from considering the
option of a direct engagement with the North
Koreans and their mercurial young leader, Kim
Jong-Un.

Other factors complicating the secretary of
state's discussions in Seoul and Beijing are the
complex political situation in South Korea, which
has just impeached its president, and China's
resentment about the deployment in South Korea of
a controversial U.S. defensive missile system.

Following President Park Guen-hye's departure from
the Blue House in Seoul, Tillerson will meet for
the first time with South Korea's acting
president, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is
obliged to call new elections within 60 days.

The United States has also become embroiled in a
dispute with China over the deployment of a
controversial American missile-defense system in
South Korea.

The first elements of the U.S. Terminal High
Altitude Area Defense missile system, known as
THAAD, arrived in South Korea last week, one day
after North Korea launched at least four ballistic
missiles in rapid succession, sending the rockets
over the Sea of Japan, within 350 kilometers of
Japanese territory.

Washington said the proximity of those events
demonstrated the U.S. action was defensive in
nature, and intended exclusively to counter the
threat from Pyongyang.

“We’ve been very clear in our conversations with
China that this is not meant to be a threat. Not a
threat to them or any other power in the region.
It is a defensive system,” Mark Toner, the State
Department's acting spokesperson, has told
reporters.

Nevertheless, Beijing has strongly opposed
deployment of the advanced U.S. weapons system
near its borders, declaring the system is an
unnecessary and provocative military escalation.
The basis of China's opposition is its military
leaders' belief the powerful radar the U.S. system
uses to track missiles launched by North Korea can
also look deep into China.

In China, where Tillerson will meet with President
Xi Jinping, one of his primary tasks is preparing
for a visit to the United States by the Chinese
leader expected later this year.

Washington is intent on pursuing a constructive
relationship with China, while remaining
determined to ensuring that China abides by
international rules, and that trade between the
two countries is conducted on a so-called level
playing field, under conditions that favor neither
side unfairly.
White House intruder caught by Secret Service
Friday

By the A.M.
Costa Rica wire services

An intruder with a backpack who scaled the outer
perimeter fence around the White House was
arrested shortly before midnight Friday on the
grounds of the president's official residence in
Washington.

Uniformed U.S. Secret Service officers arrested
the person without incident and identified him
Saturday as Jonathan Tran, 26-years old, of
Milpitas, California. President Donald Trump, who
was not involved in the incident in any way, said
the young man was a troubled person. He had no
criminal record.

In a written statement, Secret Service spokesman
Martin Mulholland said Saturday that Tran's
backpack contained no hazardous materials, and
that nothing of concern was found during a full
search of the White House grounds.

"I am a friend of the President. I have an
appointment," the young man was quoted as telling
the guards who arrested him. "I jumped the fence."

President Trump was in the White House at the time
but was never in any danger, White House officials
said. Trump told reporters Saturday he had been
informed of the incident promptly, and tweeted his
thanks to his security team: "Secret Service did a
fantastic job last night. I appreciate it."

The Secret Service tightened security around the
White House after three intrusion incidents in
September 2014, during former President Barack
Obama's second term.

The most serious intrusion occurred when an Iraq
War veteran said to be suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder jumped the fence on
Sept. 19, ran through the North Portico entrance
and into the East Room of the residence, where he
was apprehended. He was carrying a small knife in
his pocket. President Obama and his family were
not at the White House at the time.

Less than 24 hours later, a 19-year-old man from
New Jersey was arrested and charged with unlawful
entry after he tried to enter a White House gate
on foot, then returned later in a vehicle, which
he refused to step out of at a security
checkpoint.

On Sept. 11, 2014, a man who scaled the White
House fence and ran across the north lawn of the
residence was apprehended quickly.

Last year, a uniformed Secret Service officer shot
and wounded a man who approached a White House
entrance and refused orders to put down a pistol
he was carrying.

Several members of Congress have previously called
for a congressional investigation into White House
security breaches.

This
is a gorgeous, new, 3-bedroom luxury
home on 2.2 flat acres in a secure,
gated community, high in the hills
of Puriscal, with stunning,
180-degree views of the ocean, city
and mountains of the Central Valley
in Costa Rica. Centrally located in
the heart of Costa Rica, you are
never more than an hour from the
Pacific beaches while being much
less than that to the culture,
shopping, services and night life of
the San José, Escazú, Santa Ana and
the whole Central Valley. The Altos
de Antigua gated community sits at
an altitude of 2,800 feet with mild
temperatures year round. Features
wide paved roads and cement culverts
throughout, a large community pool
& spa with changing rooms &
showers. The community association
fees are $42 a month ($500
annually).
This property is currently being
offered for $355,000.00 U.S.
Purchase adjoining 2.2 acre
investment lot with the home sale
for $35,000.00 U.S. or separately
for $55,000.00 U.S.

* Colinas del Sol is a fenced and
gated project in a quiet area.
* There are 88 clear titled lots.
* Mountain areas with great views.
* Gently sloping level areas ideal for
hobby farms, gardening, fruit trees.
* Quiet place to get away from the
busy city and beach crowds.
* All lots have gravel roads to them,
water and electricity at each.
* Lots are 5,000 sq. meters or larger,
starting at only $40,000 USD
* Located in Libertad, Guanacaste,
northwest Pacific area of Costa Rica.
* 20 minutes to the Liberia
International Airport
* 15 minutes to the Pacific Beaches
* 10 minutes to Medical Facilities
* 25 minutes to the Liberia Hospital
* 5 minutes to Vista Ridge Golf Club

Beautiful
farm in excellent location
At only an hour's drive from San
José, minutes from Guápiles, and
boardering Braulio Carrillo National
Park, Etlingera Farms is one heck of
an amazing farm. We purchased this
77-acre farm 10 years ago after many
trips, and an exhaustive search. It
has a little bit of everything we
were looking for and a whole lot of
beauty. Our average elevation of 600
meters helps to keep Bella Vista
cool year round. This farm is nearly
level with a semi-modern 2-bedroom
house. A fairly rustic 2-bedroom
caretaker's home. And, a
comfortable, 1-bedroom cabin where
we stay. We have 2 large barns, a
chicken coop, and a 3-stall pig pen.
There are two tilapia ponds and 2
hectarias, (approximately 5 acres)
of different species of bananas. The
property boarders Rio Blanco in the
rear and has 300 meters of public
road frontage. Water, electricity,
and telephone are all serviced by
public utility. Etlingera Farms was
reforested with several thousand
wood trees of different tropical
varieties. We truly believe this
farm is spectacular. Our neighbors
are selling for as much as $20 per
meter. We are negotiable, motivated
and open to offers. Our location can
be found by searching Etlingera
Farms on Google Maps. Our webpage is
www.etlingerafarms.com
and photo album can be found at www.ticorico.com

9170-3/24/17

Spectacular
Horse Ranch and Spiritual/Yoga Retreat Center For Sale

We invite you to a horseback tour of
187 acres of pristine farm land with
breathtaking vistas, including the
islands of the Gulf of Nicoya. There
are multiple springs and streams,
wooded areas, hard-wood and fruit
trees, rolling hills with a geat
variety of birds and wildlife. This
property boasts the privilege of being
bordered by thousands of acres of
forest preserve down a steep canyon,
offering its own spectacular views,
which will never be developed. The
many hills provide a builder an
endless array of possibilities for
nestling buildings in where they will
have both views and privacy. The
elevation of the property at 1,200
to1600 feet above sea level ensures
fresh breezes and ideal year-round
temperatures with a day-time average
in the low 80's for open-air living.
There is a ranch-style house with
guest house with 8 total bedrooms, 5
modern baths, huge eat-in kitchen,
landmark palm-thatched giant rancho,
stable, and storage buildings. The
home will come partially furnished,
including beds, ample dishware for
large groups, housewares, linens,
washer/dryer, and fine hard-wood
hand-built cabinetry. The remaining
horses, 4 to 6 of them, will also
convey if one wishes. We are also
including a LARGE BEACH LOT in nearby
Playa Bejuco. San Rafael de Nandayure
is a tiny rural village nestled into
the mountainside above Carmona with
all the charms of the simple good life
of a BLUE ZONE. Carmona is a thriving
town with a clinic, restaurfants,
shopping, and everything else one may
need. The price of our listing Rancho
Ricco is $799,000. More information
go to www.ranchforsalecostarica.com
Call
Darin
Ricco, phone +619-846-8249 or
email: darin_ricco@hotmail.com

Brand new home with
4-plus bedrooms and 3 baths
all overlooking an
incredible 180-degree view
of the Pacific Ocean and
mountains. Located
only 45 minutes from the
San Jose airport and about
the same to the Pacific
Ocean. The lower
level could be used as a
separate apartment or
mother-in-law setup. Home
includes HUGE master
suite, CLOSETS, custom
cabinets, granite counter
tops, high wood ceilings,
and all in an area that is
70-80 degrees year
round. Priced
at $199,000.
Completion date is
January. See the
Virtual Tour CLICK
HEREor see
our site here www.whynotcostarica.com. If you
would like to take a look
at this amazing house,
please give me a call
at Costa Rica #
506-8755-6743 or if from
the States call #
509-570-1928 or
email tim@whynotcostarica.com

9143-2/3/17

Mountain
home w/million dollar view near
San Ramón
Beautiful home in the mountains near
San Ramón with 180-degree view of
the gulf of Nicoya. 7 miles from San
Ramón, 1 mile from Interamericana
highway. 3,200 foot elevation so
temp is 65 to 75 year around.
Electric gate, private drive. house
built in 2010. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath,
appliances included. High-speed
internet installed, Price for
sale $179,000
Contact Mike: mmpeace@hotmail.com
Check out slide show HERE!

9129-3/6/17

Costa
Rica penthouse for sale
5 -story penthouse for
sale. One of a kind penthouse
on top of the Corobici Hotel in
Sabana overlooking the Central Park
and new Soccer Stadium in San
José. Excellent location
provides you easy access to
everywhere. Other benefits
include 24-hour security, 2
restaurants inside the hotel
providing 1st class room service
plus shared common areas in the
hotel. Commercial license is in
place. Seller will consider owner
financing. Asking $795K
U.S. Also available for
monthly rent for $3,400 per month on
an annual basis. Go to www.ThePenthouseCostaRica.com
Owners
U.S.
cell phone: 813 310-7402 Email
crstratton@ymail.com

Live the dream!
Several profitable businesses, including a
regional radio station, are for sale in
Costa Rica. Certain purchases can provide
the new owner with residency as well as a
great lifestyle. So live your dream while
making a profit. Contact: manager@crbusiness.biz.

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9004-4/26/17

COSTA
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“I know it is hot, and the sun is too sunny,
but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.”
That was a paraphrase from The Cat in the Hat
with apologies to Dr. Seuss.

The dry sunny season is indeed upon us
and has been for a while. It seems

to me that
there are some weeds that grow better
now than they do in the rainy season, or
maybe it’s just that all the plants we
want are curling up and withering giving
the weeds free rein to
thrive.

This morning, I noticed that there
was a huge bright green vine out there
climbing over the other

plants. From end to end it was over ten
meters long, or around 33 feet, and tangled in
everything. When I traced it to the
root, clipping as I went just to get it out of
the way, I found it was growing from the top of
a fence post! The root ball was so large that a
saw was necessary to remove it from the post.

And why was I really out there? Well, my porter
weed wasn’t looking all that well. Porter weed’s
scientific name is Stachytarpheta
frantzii and locally it is called robo de
gato, or cat’s tail in English. It is one of
those “weeds” you want to have somewhere around
because it attracts butterflies, hummingbirds,
birds, and bees. I had noticed a vine on it, so
I decided to check.

Well, porter weed evidently doesn’t do well in
the dry season and there was a lot of dead wood
on the plant. I sharpened the clippers and got
to work removing the vine as I went along. The
plant looks a lot better now and will probably
be fine until it rains again.

Other things seem to be doing well in the
dryness. Leaf-cutter ants, for example, are out
in force making their usual mess. Caterpillars
are emerging from eggs and eating their way
across the garden. Potted plants are taking a
special beating as those pots heat up and
transfer the heat to the plant roots. Of course,
I could countersink them into the ground, but
then I would lose the fancy pot…It’s a dilemma.

Down in the veggie garden, the sweet corn is
actually growing! This is short day sweet corn
developed in Hawaii especially for places that
only (only?) get 12 hours of sunlight daily.
Regular US sweet corn needs about 14-16 hours of
sun so it isn’t happy in the tropics. But you
have to plant this Hawaiian corn at the right
time, just at the end of the rainy season, to
get the best results.

If anyone wants to try the Hawaiian corn seed,
just let me know.

A.M.
Costa Rica/Victoria Torley

Plant of the Week

They say: “Pride goeth before a fall.” But I
hope not, because I am proud of my first good
stand of Hawaiian sweet corn. It’s been 5 years
since we have had good sweet corn and we are
ready! We just hope everything goes well.

If you
would like to suggest a topic for
this column, simply send a letter to
the editor. And, for more
garden tips, visit HERE!

The contents of this Web
site are copyrighted by Consultantes Río
Colorado S.A. 2017 and may not be reproduced
anywhere without permission.Abstracts and fair use are
permitted. Check
HERE for details

From Page 7:

U.S. marks eight years of a
bull market

By the A.M. Costa
Rica wire services

Eight years ago, the Standard & Poor’s 500
closed at 676.53, the low point for the worst bear
market in equities since the Great Depression. Since
then, the path has been upwards.

“No one would have ever believed it possible at the
time, but at 97 months old, this now ranks as the
second-longest bull market since World War II,” said
Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL
Financial. “On a percentage basis, though, both the
1950s and 1990s bull markets saw larger percentage
gains.”

Detrick essentially says that age is just a number.

“We don’t believe bull markets die of old age. They
die of excesses. This bull might be old, but we
aren’t seeing the same type of overspending,
over-borrowing or overconfidence we’ve seen at other
major market peaks.

“This doesn’t mean there won’t be pullbacks along
the way, because there will be, but it does suggest
this old bull could still have a few tricks up his
sleeve.”

U.S. stocks ended higher Friday on the back of a
very solid employment report. U.S. job growth
increased more than expected in February, and wages
rose steadily. Non-farm payrolls rose by 235,000
jobs last month as the construction sector recorded
its largest gain in nearly 10 years, thanks to
unseasonably warm weather. And perhaps it reflects
President Donald Trump’s infrastructure spending
plans.

The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage
point to 4.7 percent, even as more people entered
the labor market.

U.S. crude oil prices fell below $50 a barrel to
their lowest levels since mid-December early
Thursday, after the Energy Information
Administration reported an 8 million-barrel rise in
U.S. stockpiles last week. That was about four times
as much as analysts had expected, and marked the
ninth week in a row of inventory gains.